Questions about Techs

[lorddread]

I have played several games since the 1.21 patch and have a couple of questions for the "experts" out there:

I am the most advanced nation. I have 42 cities. I am in the middle of the Industrial age. My neighbors are just beginning the Indust Age. How can a small nation, Egypt, (13 cities), suddenly within the space of 29 turns not only out research me, but be ahead of me? No one else is close. I checked them on one turn, and then the next they had 2 new techs that were not even related or near each other.

Has anyone else noticed the AI rapidly gaining on them tech wise?

My second problem is that I must be doing something wrong. I have read where several people here get the rifleman around 1600. I usually don't get the musketman until 1350. How do you do it? I have never completed the space race until AFTER 2050, usually around 2300. What's the secret?


HELP!

Thank you and have a nice day!

[Myth]

I am just going to make a suggestion, that maybe the Egyptians are using the steal tech espionage mission. You could try planting a spy to uncover his, or even just check to make sure he does have an intelligence agency. Not sure if this is it, and I havn't seen it myself, but it is a possibility.

[Raion]

I don't know about the first unless they traded with another Civ for some techs - AI trading.

Part of it is playing the game and figuring out how one does it.

That part is left up to you, it may involve what you research, may depend on how much money is spent on research, may involve making scientists on the city screen in science rich cities.

You the leader, the game is 'make the most of it'.

Have a nice day!

All this may take some time playing Civilization. Some have been playing it for years.

[heidlejohn]

Besides lots of trading among the AIs:
1) you did not mention your research route. Did you go for scientific method and build Darwin to get the two tech advances?
Or did the AI do that, perhaps aided by a leader?
2) Did the AIs take different research routes? Usually I get the electronics sequence first because the AIs do not research that way, but sometimes they do. With two different AI research paths going and lots of trading, they can advance very quickly.

As to the spaceship race, that depends upon difficulty level and map size to a great extent. Also the amount of Civs. More land for more cities means more research. More Civs means more tech trading. Both result in increased tech speed.

[Hurricane]

It sure sounds strange that they suddenly are 2 techs ahead of you. Is Egypt the only country with these 2 techs? Otherwise they may have traded for it.

Techs are very valuable in Civ 3, and the first civ to discover a new tech can often without too much trouble trade it to every other civ in the world in exchange for other techs, luxuries and gold. For example, Egypt is lacking 5 techs almost everybody else has. They then discover a new tech and trade it with everybody, netting a total of 6 techs during that turn. This happens regularly in every game and can quickly send one backwards civ to the top, tech-wise. This is particularly true in the Industrious era, before techs become so expensive to research that the biggest ones always discover them first.